In this age of heightened security, the CIA is looking to IT professionals
to help not only its battle against terrorism but in its fight against
information overload.

Recently, the agency's venture funding firm In-Q-Tel went on the offensive
appealing to Information Technology "warriors" across corporate America.

"The agency (CIA) was about to die from information overload," said In-Q-Tel
president and CEO Gilman Louie. "In the '50s and '60s, separate groups would deal
with the information process and at the end of the line there would be
offices piecing together the data. So for a long time, the sheer volume of
information became the enemy. With IT today, the new technologies can be an
asset."

Back in 1999, the CIA helped fund the private independent organization to
help it scout out cutting-edge technologies that could serve U.S. national
security interests.

Since that time, In-Q-Tel has received some two thousand proposals. The
firm's Northern Virginia and Menlo Park, Calif. offices were flooded
with at least 400 of those calls since September 11.

In all, In-Q-Tel has funded projects for about 20 firms including IBM , Inktomi, Stratify, and Zaplet.

But as Louie points out, the government is not looking for the next killer
app as much as it is looking for hardware and software you could eventually
find on the shelf.

Beyond basic security features like laptops that won't work in the wrong
hands, the CIA is looking for predictive knowledge management - what is
sometimes referred to as "discovery" technology.

"People don't understand that we have to abandon our current way of
thinking," Louie told internetnews.com. "A new texture in will hit us hard
in the next 3 to 5 years and we have to be ready for it. All it takes is for
companies to use a little bit of imagination and ask themselves how the
world will be and how will we get there."

With that in mind the U.S. has a financial plan in place to make that
happen.

According to a recent report by Chantilly, Va.-based Input, federal spending
on information systems and services will increase from
$37.1 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $63.3 billion in FY 2007.

"The needs of the federal government are not that much different from a
private company, but they need it today, and they're willing to spend money
on it," said Louie.

In-Q-Tel currently supports 45 employees and a $30 million annual budget,
including its slice of the Homeland security pie.